Today the CSCAA released their new NCAA swimming poll.
On the men’s side, Texas remained on top and garnered 19 out of the 25 first place votes and appears to be the heavy favorite heading into the upcoming championship season. Stanford held on to second place by just 3 points over Arizona, despite Arizona receiving 3 first place votes to only 1 for the Cardinal. The two teams will put those rankings to the test tomorrow when they face off in Tucson. California was ranked 4th, giving the Pac-10 3 out of the top 4 ranked teams, and the Auburn men finished off the top 5 with 2 first place votes.
The Ohio State men were the lone newcomer to the top 10, jumping up to a tie for 9th with conference foe Minnesota. The Buckeyes had an impressive 224-74 win over then No. 24 Indiana. Georgia slid down from No. 10 to No. 12 to make room. Ohio State will have a chance to prove it belongs in the top 10 when they face sixth-ranked, and perennial Big-Ten-power Michigan on January 29th in Columbus, Ohio.
In the women’s poll, the favorite is not so clear-cut as it is on the men’s side. The Georgia Lady Bulldogs had their lead sliced into after dropping a close decision to Texas 153-147. Despite the victory, the Longhorns were only able to grab 10 first place votes and moved up only one spot to 3rd. Arizona, who also had 10 first place votes, were second. Stanford, with 8 first place votes, came in 4th, and Cal finished 5th with a single first place vote. This gave the Pac-10 3 out of the top 5 teams for both men and women.
All of these rankings set up for an exciting finish to the dual meet season, as Arizona travels to swim both Cal and Stanford this weekend. If the Wildcats are still standing after that tough test, the Lady Longhorns will be in town next week to end the controversy. Assuming neither trips up before then, it’s likely that the winner of that meet will be jump ahead of Georgia and become the new No. 1 in the next poll.
Overall, there were 44 men’s teams and 53 women’s teams who received votes. Fifteen different Universities had top 20 teams in both the men’s and women’s polls: Texas, Stanford, Arizona, California, Auburn, Florida, Michigan, Virginia, Minnesota, Tennessee, Georgia, USC, North Carolina, Louisville, and Texas A&M.
| Men’s Teams | Prev | Pts | Women’s Teams | Prev | Pts | |||
| 1 | Texas (19) | 1 | 692 | 1 | Georgia (12) |
1 | 1034 | |
| 2 | Stanford (1) |
2 | 638 | 2 | Arizona (10) | 2 | 1007 | |
| 3 | Arizona (3) | 4 | 635 | 3 | Texas (10) | 4 | 981 | |
| 4 | California | 3 | 620 | 4 | Stanford(4) | 3 | 960 | |
| 5 | Auburn (2) | 5 | 594 | 5 | California (1) | 6 | 908 | |
| 6 | Florida | 4 | 555 | 6 | Texas A&M |
6 | 856 | |
| 6 | Michigan | 7 | 555 | 7 | Florida | 7 | 804 | |
| 8 | Virginia | 9 | 489 | 8 | Auburn | 8 | 727 | |
| 9 | Ohio State |
12 | 452 | 9 | Southern Cal |
9 | 667 | |
| 9 | Minnesota | 8 | 452 | 10 | Minnesota | 10 | 645 | |
| 11 | Tennessee | 11 | 361 | 11 | Virginia | 11 | 619 | |
| 12 | Georgia | 10 | 331 | 12 | Tennessee | 13 | 468 | |
| 13 | Southern Cal |
13 | 321 | 13 | Louisville | 14 | 429 | |
| 14 | North Carolina |
14 | 288 | 14 | Indiana | 12 | 427 | |
| 15 | Florida State |
15 | 271 | 15 | North Carolina |
15 | 415 | |
| 16 | Louisville | 16 | 271 | 16 | Michigan | 16 | 386 | |
| 17 | Louisiana State |
18 | 171 | 17 | Wisconsin | 17 | 308 | |
| 18 | Purdue | 19 | 167 | 18 | Southern Methodist |
19 | 202 | |
| 19 | Texas A&M |
22 | 157 | 19 | Arkansas | 18 | 201 | |
| 20 | Alabama | 21 | 139 | 20 | Virginia Tech |
20 | 187 | |
| 21 | Kentucky | 16 | 132 | 21 | Missouri | 24 | 151 | |
| 22 | UNLV | 18 | 117 | 22 | Purdue | 22 | 139 | |
| 23 | Southern Methodist |
21 | 94 | 23 | Northwestern | 23 | 132 | |
| 24 | Virginia Tech |
24 | 66 | 24 | Louisiana State |
21 | 125 | |
| 25 | Indiana | 24 | 64 | 25 | Florida State |
25 | 88 | |
| Also Receiving Votes: Hawaii 41, Navy 41, Princeton 28, UCDavis 26, Texas Christian 19, Missouri 16, Wisconsin 15, Harvard 13, Iowa 11, Penn State 11, South Carolina 11, Michigan State 9, West Virginia 9, Pittsburgh 8, Georgia Tech 7, UC-Santa Barbara 6, Notre Dame 5, Northwestern 4, Yale 2 |
Also Receiving Votes:
UCLA 77, Brigham Young 65, Ohio State 55, Maryland 46, |
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Wow, this is an old article
With the number of big meets coming up this weekend (two of which already done tonight) there are going to be a lot of shake-ups in the polls!
Great to see college swimming, unlike football, step up and swim some big-time OOC meets at the end of the year, when everyone’s starting to taper and get fast. They’ve got it figured out.
I absolutely have to agree with you! I love it when things start to “kick up” at the end of the season! I’ll be posting the preview for this weekend soon; stay tuned!